Process of making welt shoes



Sept. 6, 1966 MacPHERSON PROCESS OF MAKING WELT SHOES Filed Feb. 8, 1965 w El.

BoHom Filler Material INVENTOR.

ALLAN MOCPHERSON 7 Wk/$1M [W ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,270,357 PROCESS OF MAKING WELT SHOES Allan MacPllerson, 14 Park Road, Brockton, Mass. Filed Feb. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 430,823 3 Claims. c1. 12-142 This invention comprises a new and improved process of making welted moccasin type or other soft sole shoes.

One process for making such shoes which is now in successful commercial operation is characterized by the employment of a preformed welt gauging pattern or templet which is temporarily attached to the bottom of the lasted moccasin and serves to determine positively and accurately the position of the welt strip as it is presented to the moccasin by the welt guide of a Littleway lock stitch or other suitable sewing machine. In that process the templet is removed from the shoe bottom after it has served its purpose as a templet and may be re-used repeatedly.

I have now discovered that the welt-gauging templet may be constructed of ground cork sheet or other suitable bottom filler material, provided only that when cut in templet contour it has sufficient edge wise stiffness to perform its templet and an inner body of yielding bottom filler consistency. This bottom filler templet is of course permanently secured to the lasted shoe bottom and remains as a permanent part of the finished shoe, thus carrying out the three functions of gauging the application of the welt strip, reinforcing the shoe bottom when the last is removed for the welt sewing step and serving as the bottom filler element of the finished shoe.

The templet thus employed may be easily laid out by the shoe manufacturer from his insole pattern of the contemplated shoe. The templet from the heel breast line to the tip is sole-shaped in contour but at its rear end it is shouldered and reduced to a tongue by removal of a rand-shaped marginal chip thus giving it the outline of bottom filler required for the heel seat of the shoe. It will be understood that in nailed-seat shoes the welt is not usually carried rearwardly beyond the heel breast line so that no assistance is required of the templet in that area of the shoe bottom. It is for this reason that the combined templet and bottom filler of my invention assumes this hybrid conformation.

These and other characteristics of my novel process will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of one specific manner in which it may be carried out as shown in the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a plan View of the soleafiller templet,

FIG. 2 is .a plan view depicting the welt laying and sewing step,

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on the line 33 of FIG. 2, and on an enlarged scale, and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view suggesting the outsole stitching step.

The filler templet may be died out complete from sheet stock in the shape shown in FIG. 1 or it may be first given the complete contour of the sole and then fitted at the rear end to form a shouldered tongue 11 shaped to be enclosed in the cup of the heel which will be eventually secured to the heel seat of the shoe. The material of the templet may be a composition of cork and rubber or other plastic filler sufficiently stiff in edgewise resistance to serve as a template for the gauge of a welt guide and resilient enough to serve satisfactorily as a cushion bottom filler.

Meantime in the course of the process the full moccasin blank 12 has been lasted in the usual manner upon a last with its sole portion 13 lying flat upon the last bottom and supported thereby. The shoe bottom is thus presented in the most favorable condition to have the welt gauging templet 10 spotted thereon and secured thereto as suggested in FIG. 2. In this step a one-way cement as latex is applied to spaced areas of the templet. The spotting and securing of the templet 10 to the shoe bottom requires skill and judgment on the part of the operator, but no more than is expected as a matter of CSHISS in the manufacture of Compo cement-lasted s oes.

The last is now withdrawn from the upper leaving the templet 10 permanently attached to the shoe bottom and providing by its marginal edge a positive gauge line setting off a flat marginal welt-receiving area in the bottom 13 of the moccasin. The templet also imparts a temporary stiffness to the bottom 13 which facilitates handling of the upper in removing it from the last and in the wel-t sewing step. The tongue 11 of the templet projects into the heel seat of the lasted upper where it is surrounded by the lasted margin 14 forming the nailed heel seat of the shoe.

The welt applying and sewing step may be carried out with the assistance of any straight needle sewing machine having a welt guide. Such a welt guide as may be us d with the Littleway machine is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. It comprises a bracket having a gauge arm 15 merging into a down-turned gauging blade adapted to run against the edge of the temple-t 10 and preferably contacting the edge of the templet 10 and preferably contacting the underlying sole portion 13. The adjacent portion of the gauge arm 15 overlies the marginal surface of the templet 10 and the welt guide includes a guide roll 17 which ensures that the welt strip 20 is maintained in contact with the blade 16. As the shoe is moved progressively with respect to the welt guide the welt 20 is thus positively located at a distance from the edge of the templet determined by the thickness of the gauge blade 16 and directly in line with the path of the needle. It is secured permanently to the bottom portion 16 of the shoe by a line of lock stitches 21.

It will be apparent that the welt 20 has thus been located and secured in accurate positively gauged manner while the work in the hands of the operator is supported by the templet 10 which is laterally or transversely stiff for its gauging function. The templet 10 has now served its purpose in locating the welt and now remains in the shoe to serve the purpose of a resilient bottom filler and so obviating the separate bottom filling operation heretofore required in the manufacture of this type of shoe.

The shoe may be completed by laying an outsole 24 which of course completely covers the filler templet 10 and may be secured to the welt by outsole stitches 25 in accordance with standard Goodyear welt procedure.

While my invention has been described as applied to the manufacture of nailed-seat shoes in which the welt is not carried about the heel seat, my new process is also applicable to the manufacture of sewed-seat shoes in which the welt is layed completely about the shoe bottom. In that case the rear end of the filler templet is not reduced but presents a full rounded heelseat contour as a gauge for laying the welt.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail an illustrative example of its practice, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A process of making moccasin type shoes, comprising the steps of permanently cementing to the bottom of a lasted shoe a sole-shaped templet of material having edgewise stiffness and an inner body of yielding bottom filler consistency thereby setting off a marginal weltreceiving area and stiffening the enclosed area of the lasted shoe bottom, pulling the last, stitching a welt strip to the shoe bottom while the latter is supported by the cemented sole-shaped templet and while the welt strip is gauged progressively against the edge of the templet, and

then incorporating the templet as a bottom filler into the permanent structure of the shoe by covering it with an outsole.

2. The process described in claim 1, further characterized in that the rear end of the templet is shouldered and reduced to a tongue of substantially less Width than the heel seat of the lasted shoe bottom.

3. A process of making moccasin type shoes, comprising the steps of securing to the bottom of a lasted shoe a sole-shaped templet of bottom filler material having edgewise stiffness thereby setting off a marginal welt-receiving area about the forepart of the shoe bottom,

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,027,737 '1/1936 Laible 12142 2,420,466 5/1947 Cordeau 12-142 X 2,826,770 3/ 1958 Freeman.

FRANK J. COHEN, Primary Examiner. 

1. A PROCESS OF MAKING MOCCASIN TYPE SHOES, COMPRISING THE STEPS OF PERMANENTLY CEMENTING TO THE BOTTOM OF A LASTED SHOE A SOLE-SHAPED TEMPLET OF MATERIAL HAVING EDGEWISE STIFFNESS AND AN INNER BODY OF YIELDING BOTTOM FILLER CONSISTENCY THEREBY SETTING OFF A MARGINAL WELTRECEIVING AREA AND STIFFENING THE ENCLOSED AREA OF THE LASTED SHOE BOTTOM PULLING THE LAST, STITCHING A WELT STRIP TO THE SHOE BOTTOM WHILE THE LATTER IS SUPPORTED BY THE CEMENTED SOLE-SHAPED TEMPLET AND WHILE THE WELT STRIP IS GAUGED PROGRESSIVELY AGAINST THE EDGE OF THE TEMPLET, AND THEN INCORPORATING THE TEMPLET AS A BOTTOM FILLER INTO THE PERMANENT STRUCTURE OF THE SHOE BY COVERING IT WITH AN OUTSOLE. 